Lived in Beverley Hills, CA (Brentwood).
He enjoyed a long pre-film career as a vaudevillian, touring actor, monologist, dialectician and playwright. He made his first films in 1914 at the old Edison studios. He continued making screen appearances throughout the 1920s even while headlining several stage revues. Making his talking-picture debut in Al Jolson's "Sonny Boy", he went on to play such ethnic character roles as Herr Meyer in "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1933), prime minister Zander in the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup" (1933) and "radioscope" inventor Dr. Wong (one of his many Asian characterizations) in
the all-star musical comedy "International House" (1933).
He died of peritonitis.